10 Weird and Wonderful Car Museums

Any car nut should take a pilgrimage to the National Corvette Museum, the Petersen Automotive Museum, and the Henry Ford Museum. But the USA abounds with quirkier tributes to transportation. Like these:

International Monster Truck Museum and Hall of Fame

International Monster Truck Museum and Hall of Fame

Auburn, Ind.

It's hard to believe that monster trucks have been around for more than three decades. What began as one giant 4WD pickup truck named Bigfoot, created by Bob Chandler, has evolved into a competitive industry that draws hundreds of thousands of people to events each year. The trucks themselves have certainly changed since Bigfoot crushed its first car, but many of the monster trucks that garnered some fame and excitement along the way were thought to have been lost.

No longer. Jeff Cook, who built and drove the War Wagon monster trucks from the 1990s, decided the world needed a museum to archive the history of monster trucks. The museum's revolving collection has housed some of the most interesting trucks the sport has seen—including the very first Bigfoot, Beast, Goliath, and lots more.

Lane Motor Museum

Lane Motor Museum

Nashville, Tenn.

The Lane Motor Museum has one of our favorite quirky car collections. The Nashville museum features more than 45 different vehicle marques from around the world, including countries not necessarily known for their auto industries, such as Austria, Czechoslovakia, and the Netherlands. Ever seen a rear-engined V-8 Tata from the late 1970s? The museum's 1978 T-613 is one of a dozen cars from that Czech manufacturer.

Lane's collection has a good selection of military vehicles from around the world too. And the museum's pieces range in size from the smallest microcars to a giant 1959 LARC-LX—an amphibious cargo hauler that stands almost 20 feet tall, rides on 9-foot tall tires, and weighs 194,000 pounds.